Full Circle
by patricia51
Summary: Some months after DOFP Raven returns to the mansion where it all started to see her brother and someone else. Raven/Charles family. Raven/Hank romance.


Full Circle by patricia51

(Some months after DOFP Raven returns to the mansion where it all started to see her brother and someone else. Raven/Charles family. Raven/Hank romance.)

Charles Xavier settled in the corner of the leather couch in his office and sighed with satisfaction as he sank into its embrace. It had been a busy time indeed since the events of Washington. Extremely fruitful but busy.

Bolivar Trask was alive. But he wasn't going to be building any Sentinels. Now while he was in prison for trying to peddle the secret of their construction to the Chinese and a few other foreign governments. And he was alive because after Raven had stopped Erik at the White House she had dropped the gun instead of killing him. All the furor and hysteria caused by Erik's actions had been overtaken by Raven saving the President and then not committing murder. Overall it had been a victory for mutant-kind. Public and official opinion both were in their favor.

He had nearly been swamped by everything involved in getting the school up and running again. Of course he was the one that let it slide after the students and faculty were drafted but when he let something slide he REALLY let it slide. It took weeks just to make the place livable again. And the students poured in and the teachers had returned and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was underway again.

Thank goodness for Hank McCoy. Without that young man's help they never would have made it. Not back at the Capitol and certainly not here. Hank had worked tirelessly; assisting Charles in a myriad of ways not the least of which was becoming Beast when muscle power was what was needed the most.

His thoughts were interrupted by a tiny sound, so slight that over 99 percent of people would have ignored it. In his case it made a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. Without turning towards the floor-to-ceiling French doors behind him leading out to the garden he spoke.

"Come in Raven."

Again without looking he could sense his sister's smile as she approached. He tipped his head back in time for her to place a soft kiss on his forehead before she came around to the front of the couch.

"I never could sneak up on you." She studied him. "You look good. Not only much better than the last time I saw you but better than you have looked in ages."

"Well, sometimes a shave and a haircut do wonders," he answered.

"More than that," she said softly. "The haunted, empty look is gone from your eyes."

He returned her scrutiny. There was a look of calm in her own eyes that hadn't been there in a long time. He tilted his head slightly.

"That's a familiar looking outfit. Let me think." He snapped his fingers and his smile broadened. "I remember. That's what you were wearing the day we went to the Division X facility. Now who was it that we met that day? Oh, of course, the Man in the Black Suit."

"You!" Raven rolled her eyes. She sat down beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. Carefully and gently he slid an arm around her. The pair settled into a comfortable position, once familiar, that they had not enjoyed in a very long time. His mind searched back to recall the last time his sister and I had been like this. London, before all this had come upon them. He had missed it. The silence that settled over them felt good.

Finally Charles broke the quiet.

"How have you been?"

"You mean where have I been?" Raven twisted to smile up at him.

"Both."

"No where in particular. Well, not recently. At first I was chasing Erik. He DID try to kill me after all. But he's keeping quite a low profile right now. And..." her voice trailed off.

"And what?"

"I decided I had better things to do with my time. So I just wandered. Listened to people. Saw places I never had before. Even met a couple of mutants."

"I know. You sent one of them here. As for at least one more, well, Logan had interesting things to say about you when he passed by here. Something about how you pried him away from Stryker's goons, just as you had with the other mutants in Vietnam. Most of them are here too by the way. Someday you'll have to tell me all about that." He laughed and told her about his and Erik's extremely short-lived attempt to recruit Wolverine back when they were first starting out.

"You don't want to hear about it now?" Raven asked in surprise.

"I do. I do very much indeed. But right now I think you need to see someone else. The someone you wore that outfit for to remind him of the day you met. Follow up on that promise you made to each other that day in Washington."

"What promise?"

"Oh Raven, I was happy you spared me a glance before you left that day but I didn't have to read minds to see what you and Hank told each other when you stared across the destruction into each other's soul. You said you'd be back. He said he'd be waiting. And more."

"More?" Her tone was teasing.

"Don't play with me," Charles grinned. "Every big brother wants to see his sister happy but at the same time he's never quite sure any guy is good enough for her. But I am. And even more so because of a thing or two that you don't know."

"Tell me. Please?"

A few minutes later Raven slipped out of the study. Making her way through the bustling corridors she didn't really see anyone, even Havoc who stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. He opened his mouth to call out to her but as he watched her bound up the stairs he guessed where she was going and smiled.

"About time," he said to the air around him.

Hank was gathering books and folders, muttering to himself because he couldn't locate a particularly elusive paper. He checked the time. He had an hour until his next class but he always wanted to be prepared. Even after all he had gone through in some ways he was still the shy genius he had been back when he first was recruited into the X-Men and public speaking set him on edge. He heard a rap on his door. Automatically he called "Come in" without looking around. He did hear the door open just as he spotted the offending document. He reached for it and managed to spill most of the rest of his gathered item.

"So your mutation is what? You're super smart?"

Hank froze as the dearly missed, often dreamed about voice repeated the very first words she had ever said to him. He abandoned his attempt to gather his papers.

"Once I wished that was all it was."

"Once?" She came closer to him, the door closing behind her.

"Now I know that it's all a part of who I am. And I like me."

She undid her leather coat and dropped it to the floor before stepping out of her boots. The rest vanished as she shifted into her true form.

"All of it?"

He set his teeth and concentrated. He changed color and his fur appeared.

"All of it."

She smiled and he remembered how she had smiled at him that first day and how that had given him the courage to show himself. And the heart-stopping power of that smile hadn't changed at all, regardless of her form.

"You're amazing," she said again as she had so long ago and then she was in his arms. And the kiss was everything that he had hoped for and waited for and dreamed about.

His clothes had torn as they always did although he had stepped out of his shoes at the last moment. But torn or not she got them off and the two of them tumbled back onto his bed and came together as they had both wanted before life had taken such strange twists and turns. Their bodies molded together as tightly as their mouths did. Then they were joined and to both of them it was a home-coming long delayed but all the sweeter for the wait. They made love throughout the afternoon and no one disturbed them; Havoc having notified Charles who had delightedly taken Hank's class for him and gave quiet instructions that no one was to disturb them.

Finally spent the pair lay together. Raven had shifted back to her "Normal" appearance and Hank had injected himself. A ceiling fan and open windows cooled their heated bodies even as they remained together.

"Charles told me."

"Told you what?"

"That you saved my life in Paris. Magneto would have shot me dead had you not tackled him. Thank you."

He shifted uncomfortably. For an instant the thought crossed his mind this all was in repayment for that. He dismissed that idea. He knew her better. "Thank you" was all that was needed.

"It terrified me. Worse than anything else, even when Wolverine told me in that future world I didn't make it. That was the future. That moment in Paris was the present. I would NOT let him kill you."

"Because you love me."

"I have since that first day."

"Not all of me," she reminded him.

"No," he admitted. "But by Paris I had grown. I knew I loved all of you."

"I love you too Hank," and she laid her head on his chest.

"What now?" he asked as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"I'm not staying. Not yet. I have to think things through; there's more to come to grips with, more to see and explore and learn. But I'll be back."

"I'll be waiting."

They fell asleep in each other's arms. When he awoke in the morning Hank was alone. But he showered and dressed and came downstairs to breakfast with a smile on his face. Charles caught his arm after and drew him into the study.

"She's gone isn't she?"

"Yes."

"But you are alright." was spoken more as a statement than a question.

"Yes."

"She'll be back for good when the time is right," Charles said confidently. Hank nodded.

The pair stood silently for a bit. Charles kept looking Hank up and down until the younger man finally became slightly uncomfortable.

"What is it?"

"Just thinking of how you'll be as a brother-in-law one day."

(The End)


End file.
